AMD smacked down by Graphics Properties

AMD has had a liberal beating about the head with a wet fish by a Wisconsin court.

Graphics Properties Holdings hauled AMD into the dock claiming that it had nicked some of its best ideas when it designed its Radeon graphics chip.

On Friday, June 4, 2010 the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected AMD’s licence defence and reversed the previous claim construction ruling regarding several key claim terms in GPHI’s US Patent No. 6,650,327.

GPHI said its patent infringement claims against AMD’s Radeon product line have been sent back to the Western District of Wisconsin to address the matter of infringement, and the small matter of big damages.

The Appeals Court decision was noteworthy for its recognition of GPHI’s technical contribution to computer graphics processing.

The Federal Circuit upheld the jury verdict on the validity of GPHI’s ‘327 patent and found that AMD had lost its right to challenge patent validity in future proceedings.

AMD had previously claimed that the 327 patent was unenforceable, which the court and a jury disagreed with.

Bradley Scher, President of GPHI, said he was jolly pleased that the court had acknowledged the validity of his outfit’s patented graphics technology.

As you might expect, Graphics Properties Holdings is an “asset management” outfit which owns more than 300 patents used for graphics, computer and display segments.

Its business is to managing its patent portfolio and realising value for its owners through “licensing and other means”.